Sunday, March 2, 2008

In-Progress: Sunday's "NASCAR Now" On ESPN2

The one hour Sunday edition of NASCAR Now is coming up on ESPN2 at 10AM Eastern Time.

This week the program has seen Nicole Manske hosting from the ESPN2 studios, with Ryan Burr getting a well-deserved break. Allen Bestwick is the third co-host of this series, and he is currently trackside in Las Vegas.

It should be interesting to see how ESPN lays-out this big one hour program. Over the past two weeks, the weekend shows have been hosted from a variety of locations, including the ESPN studios, the ESPN Infield Pit Center, and from Victory Lane at the track.

This season, ESPN has opened the door to appear on this show to all of the NASCAR on ESPN announcers. Viewers have seen a tremendous change in the interaction of the guys involved in the race broadcasts showing-up on this daily news show.

This post will serve to host your comments about the one hour Sunday edition of NASCAR Now. This is ESPN's program that reviews the Friday and Saturday action, and then serves as the preview show for the Sprint Cup race.

To add your TV-related comments, simply click on the COMMENTS button below and follow the easy instructions. Thanks again for taking the time to stop by.

Boris did an excellent job explaining the final wreck. You could see where Carl was trying to catch it and coulden't. No on thought Mark did it on purpose but it was nice to see how Carl didn't just let it happen.

Has anyone else other than Mike Joy on SPEED during practic or quals mention that A WOMAN is crew chiefing for THE FIRST TIME IN NASCAR HISTORY? This is a GREAT story and I was hoping someone else would do a follow up piece. This is where I think Jerry Punch would do a great job. Let him roam pit road and find the two or three important stories of the race, and then report on them from the infield studio instead of trying to call the race.

They need to do these shows from the track with the people who are at the track. That's the beauty of SPEED/FOX we are spending the weekend with them at the track(practice/quals/race) and off (all the stuff inbetween that makes those of us who can't be there in person feel as if we are) it lacks basic credability to pretend someone hundreds of miles away can give us any useful information.

What i'm trying to explaine badly, is that SPEED gets a conciderable number of what I think are 'BREAKING NEWS' stories just by the amount of time their people are on the ground in the garage. If ESPN did this more then I think NN would be a place to turn to when you want to find out the latest from the track with out having to fire up the computer.

John, I think you take the Eliminator much too literally. I don't think they really believe the Eliminator is picking the winner. I think they use it as another way to give us information about the race and the track.

Speed does have more people on the ground wondering around including the "non reporters" like Larry Mac, DW and Hammond. I beleive the people in the garage respect those guys and possible share info with them. I also beleive the same is true for Marty Smith he's just out numbered. This just means Marty has to work harder but he is up for it I'm sure.

I agree about the fantasy stuff and if the eliminator is just a way to give us more info try another. I think the only reason it made it to the show was because it was right last week and it usually is not. That's a bummer for me cause I'm a 48 fan.

Overall I thought the show was pretty good. The Mears piece was fun and I really enjoy those drivers personal side pieces. Also when Marty was talking about JJ they showed more footage of the Mears piece JJ was obvioulsy there and it was nice that they left that out initially and made the piece all about Casey and not Casey and his friend Jimmie Johnson.

I understand what you are saying. With all the arbitrary racing luck and circumstances that happen in any long Cup race, I just think it is demeaning to believe that any statistical approach can somehow decide who will win.

Nicole also framed the use of the Eliminator in the role of picking the winner. As you mentioned, this feature usually contains some interesting information and facts.

Ryan will begin his traveling assignments with the upcoming Atlanta weekend. He is pretty pumped-up, and one other thing. He reads this blog and your comments every day. I think maybe he "gets it" now.

I enjoyed the show, especially seeing Carl Edwards' reaction to being a passenger on the track. I didn't see yesterday's preshow, but I imagine that's where they showed this piece first. I forwarded through the last segment: the Eliminator and fantasy picks.

Was it really necessary for Nicole and Boris to review the Nationwide race, then throw it to the booth announcers and have them review the race all over again with the exact same highlights? Rather redundant, I thought.

It was a nice touch for Nicole to say "Enjoy today's race" as she signed off.